Using Nintendo Switch on a mobile hotspot

Since the Nintendo Switch is a portable system, one of the things you might want to do is hook the Switch up to the internet so you can play some Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online. Luckily it’s not too hard of a process to hook up your switch to your cell phone mobile hotspot. This article will detail exactly how to use your Nintendo Switch on a mobile hotspot.

The first thing you need to do is turn on your iPhone’s mobile hotspot. You do this by going to Settings then Personal hotspot and turning it on by sliding the slider right. It will look like the screen below:

Turning on your iPhone Hotspot so the Nintendo Switch can connect

Once this is setup, you’ll need to go onto your Nintendo Switch and find your hotspot network. You’ll do this by going to Settings:

Nintendo Switch Main Screen

then Internet:

Nintendo switch System Settings

then Internet Settings:

Nintendo Switch Network Settings

and then find your network (which is Aaron’s hotspot in this case):

Nintendo Switch Network Selection screen

Once you select this, the Switch will try to connect to the network. I have noticed that occasionally this is a little flakey at times, I think the Switch for some reason has some occasional wifi issues. If it has troubles, I recommend turning your hotspot off and on again, that’s helped me in the past. When you finish it should look like this if it works:

Nintendo Switch Connected to cell phone hotspot

Once it’s hooked up, you should be able to go play your favorite internet games without too many issues. You may experience greater lag than normal but it should be pretty playable still. Something to take note of is that this will only currently work for Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint networks, it won’t work on AT&T due to their restrictive NAT. If you have AT&T, you don’t really have any good options unfortunately. I do know that people have been campaigning AT&T to make their NAT less restrictive so the Switch can connect online. Nintendo could also fix their network to work with more restrictive NAT’s but that seems unlikely considering they had this issue with the Wii U as well and never fixed it.

I made a video of the whole process below, hopefully that helps every out. I know for kids and parents that aren’t used to using a hotspot it can be kind of a difficult process initially.

Also, if you haven’t already, I would recommend a screen protector for your switch. I bought one from amFilm (my review here) but there are other good options. Cheap insurance to keep your switch safe. The Switch Pro Controller is also pretty awesome.

Growing up I was a huge player of arcade, PC, and console games. Now that I'm older, I've gravitated towards pinball, bubble hockey, online video games, and more. I built this website to try and help out the new person to different aspects of the game room, including options he may not have even considered. Hopefully you find it helpful, and if there's anything you need don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you for visiting my website, I appreciate your support!